According to leaked internal documents, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless may soon offer new unlimited voice/text/web plans. One image, obtained by TmoNews, suggests that T-Mobile will quietly launch a new “Truly Unlimited Data + Talk + Text” option on April 13th that will retail for $79.99 per month. T-Mobile will supposedly not cap data for this plan, but will instead reduce data throughput speeds (throttle) after a user surpasses 2GB in a single billing cycle. Another image leaked by Droid-Life suggests that Verizon Wireless is also gearing up to release a new unlimited plan for just $50 per month. It will supposedly include unlimited mobile to mobile calling, text, and web for customers opting for service without a contract. We’re thinking this could be limited to feature phones only, given Verizon’s choice to call it “unlimited web” instead of “unlimited data” — “unlimited data” is terminology Verizon typically uses when referring to smartphones. Neither carrier has officially announced the new plans, however. Hit the jump for more images. More →

In response to last week’s tsunami, AT&T has announced that its wireless customers, in the United States and Puerto Rico, can call or text Japan for free through March 31st. AT&T has also said it will not charge its wireless postpaid customers for international long distance calls or texts to Japan that were placed after March 11th. Similarly, AT&T wireline customers can seek credit for up to 60 minutes of direct calls placed to Japan during the March 11th to March 31st time period. Anyone who wishes to donate $10 to the Red Cross can do so by texting “redcross” to 90999. More →

After using the Verizon iPhone for a few weeks, something finally hit me. I have had an AT&T iPhone since the original launched, and was accustomed to typing “att” and getting a suggestion from autotext for “AT&T”. Except, this does not work on the Verizon iPhone. It’s funny because the word “Verizon” is in the AT&T iPhone’s autotext dictionary. Anyone else finding the same thing out there?

According to the latest intel gathered by TmoNews, the nation’s fourth largest carrier, T-Mobile, will begin offering two new, pre-paid international calling plans on March 13th. Aimed at those who frequently dial from the U.S. to friends and family internationally, the plans include unlimited calling to landlines in 50+ countries, unlimited text messaging to any mobile phone in over 220 countries, and discounted calling to international mobile and landline numbers. The plans look like this:

$60 – International Unlimited Talk & Text with 100MB of domestic data

$80 – International Unlimited Talk & Text with 2GB of domestic data

Both plans also include unlimited, domestic voice minutes and text messages. That’s a pretty strong offering — especially in the pre-paid category — from T-Mo. Thoughts? More →

Competition is a great thing. The Internet is atwitter with reports that AT&T is, without provocation, offering its loyal iPhone customers an additional 1,000 Rollover minutes via text message. What makes you worthy of this offering? We’re not quite sure. What we do know is that texting the word “yes” to 11113020 will help expedite the process… if you know what we mean. Give it a try and cash in, you deserve it. More →

Piggybacking on an offering available to Sprint customers for some time, AT&T will launch an unlimited “Mobile to Any Mobile” calling plan beginning tomorrow. Details on the plan, for the time being, are scarce. What we do know is that users will be required to have the $20, unlimited text-messaging plan ($30 for family plans) to be eligible for the program. No word on whether there will be an added fee for the any mobile-to-mobile privilege, or if it will now be a part of the unlimited messaging plan. Seems like a pretty good deal if it’s included free of charge… thoughts?

UPDATE: Unlimited, any mobile to mobile calling is included free with the unlimited text messaging plan. The full press release just crossed the wire and is waiting for you after the break. More →

According to a report filed by GearLive, AT&T is preparing to update its text messaging offerings with the changes taking effect next week. The changes themselves are pretty straight forward. In a two for one swap, Ma’ Bell will be discontinuing its $5 per month, 200 message and $15 per month, 1,500 message plans replacing them with a $10 per month 1,000 message offering. The $20 per month, unlimited messaging plan will be left untouched. Those who currently subscribe to one of plans being discontinued will be allowed to keep the feature until their next change of service. What do you think? Is this move going to save or cost you money? More →

Regional wireless provider U.S. Cellular has announced three new prepaid calling plans just in time for the holiday buying season. The new plans, which all include unlimited text messaging, will offer 200, 400, or 1000 talk minutes and retail for $29, $39, and $49 respectively; the 400 minute plan will also include 5GB of monthly data usage.

“With balancing the budget on the minds of many, prepaid plans can help customers stay on top of spending and don’t require a contractual agreement,” quips the press release. “U.S. Cellular’s new prepaid plans offer spending flexibility through unlimited messaging choices and graduated levels of included voice minutes.”

The prepaid offerings compliment the company’s Belief Project plans announced earlier this year. More →

Apple finally approved (or accepted) Google’s official Google Voice app for the iPhone just minutes ago, and while 3rd party versions of the software were allowed back in a couple months ago, sometimes there isn’t anything like the official version. We messed around with the app and here are some of our initial thoughts:

We love how straight forward the app is to use. You’d think this would be the case for any application, but Google really nails the usability angle here.

Dialing a number quickly and efficiently is the most important part of a phone calling app, and since you have to manually switch to another app and not the iPhone phone app, you don’t want to waste more time by jumping around tabs, and different screen views. On here, hit the dialer tab, and you’re ready to dial. Also of note: Google Voice for iPhone makes use of outbound dialing, so you never have to wait for an incoming call to ring your phone, you just “dial out”.

One major issue with Google Voice’s web apps and iPhone-optimized website, was that the experience was kind of lousy. You’d want to dial or shoot a quick text message off but couldn’t due to the fact the entire UI was in Safari, thus it scrolled around, sometimes would be a little delayed, etc. The app provides very quick access to SMS creation and sending, especially for conversations not yet started. This is important here, because the faster these tasks get, the more people will use Google Voice and centralize their calling/texting habits and behaviors.

The inbox view is great — you have all your voicemails, incoming calls, missed calls, text messages and recorded calls in one neat, and super clean-looking list. You can also manually view just a specific category like voicemails or text message if you’d like, however.

Push notifications on here are lightning fast, and are so, so necessary.

All in all, this is close enough to an integrated experience like Android offers to make iPhone-using Google Voice users extremely happy. Now if they could only work on their voicemail transcriptions… Check out our hands on photos in the gallery!

There have been rumors floating around the internet about Verizon Wireless offering a second, “tiered” data plan, and that rumor was confirmed today. America’s largest wireless provider will begin offering a $15 monthly data plan to 3G smartphone users that offers 150MB data allowance. The carrier will bill overages at $15 per 150MB and the $30, unlimited data plan will remain unchanged.

Also hot off the rumor wagon, Engadget is reporting that Verizon is testing calling plans with unlimited, any-mobile-to-mobile minutes — a la Sprint — in select markets across Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas. The plans range from $60 all the way up to $130 — offering between 450 and 2000 minutes — and include unlimited text messaging. The unlimited mobile-to-mobile offerings are available until the end of 2010 at which point, we assume, Verizon will either expand or cancel the plans depending on demand. More →

Have any teens in your household? If you do, you may or may not be surprised to know that U.S. teens, on average, send 3,339 text messages per month. The numbers come courtesy of analytics company Nielsen who analyzed the cellular habits of over 3,000 teens in April, May, and June. The study finds the males between the age of 13 and 17 send roughly 2,539 texts per month while females send a blistering 4,050. The older, more conservative group of 18 to 24 year olds only sent an average of 1,630 text messages per month. No wonder cellular companies are charing an arm and a leg for unlimited text messaging plans. How many SMS messages are you good for every month? More →

About one-week ago, information on T-Mobile’s prepaid phone and data plans leaked… and the information was dead on. Today, T-Mobile officially announced the new prepaid monthly plans that will be available on October 18. The plans looks like this:

The prepaid mobile broadband plans will be available on a new “Jet USB Laptop Stick” that is “pre-packaged with a prepaid SIM card, user guide, and plug & play connection manager software” — the device will be available online on October 18th and in stores on the 20th. “T-Mobile’s prepaid mobile broadband plans have no annual contract, no credit check, no overages and can be used with any of the company’s mobile broadband products,” explains the press release. The prepaid voice plans look pretty attractive… but $50 for 1 GB of data seems pretty steep.

AT&T has just sent out a quick press release to inform us of several new prepaid GoPhone plans they will be launching on October 3. The company will offer an “Unlimited Daily Talk and Text” plan which will afford customers the “flexibility of unlimited calling and texting with the two dollar rate plan charge only applying on days when they make or receive voice calls, use IM or send a text, picture or video message.” AT&T will also be offering a more traditional $60 per month “Unlimited Talk & Text” plan; 200 MB of data can be added to the plan for an additional $15. Finally, AT&T will be offering a “Simple Rate” plan that bills users $0.10 per minute for calls made and received. “AT&T GoPhone unlimited plans include nationwide calling and texting, as well as texting to Mexico, Canada and more than 100 countries worldwide,” writes AT&T. Hit the read link to check out the full release. More →